Author: Vatche Chakhmakhchian

 

 

 

The Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul has sent a note to the Turkish government and requested clarifications regarding the decision to expropriate the Armenian Sourp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, Rober Hatechian, editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Marmara daily, told .

He added, however, that the Patriarchate has not received any explanation so far.

After years of struggle the Armenian St. Giragos Church was renovated and reopened in 2011, but has since been damaged in clashes between Turks and Kurds.

Hatechian said the national minorities are worried about the move, but don’t believe the government will manage to expropriate all 6,300 plots of land “with one shot.”

“The properties, namely the Armenian St Giragos and St. Sarkis Churches will belong to the Armenian community, and I don’t believe any state body will suddenly confiscate them.  I don’t see the danger. But I think we have to wait for another couple of days for explanations from the government,” Hatechian said.

“With this step Turkey showed that its policy is the same as it was 100 years ago,” historian Vahan Melikyan told reporters in Yerevan.

“This is a serious threat to the dialogue between the Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian communities. This is a failure of an attempted dialogue between civil societies Turkey had imitated. Turkey behaves like a rightful heir of the Ottoman Empire,” he said.

Founding member of the National Council of Western Armenians Aragats Akhoyan accuses the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. “This is the consequence of the weakness of the Patriarchate and the policy of Acting Patriarch Aram Ateshyan.”

Photo: AP

 

Woody Allen’s latest work, Cafe Society, will open this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the BBC reports.

Starring Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Steve Carell, the movie centres on the buzzing cafe society of 1930s Hollywood.

It makes Allen the first director to present three opening-night films at Cannes.

Hollywood Ending opened the annual festival in 2002, and Midnight in Paris in 2011.

According to the festival organisers, Cafe Society tells the story “of a young man who arrives in Hollywood during the 1930s hoping to work in the film industry, falls in love, and finds himself swept up in the vibrant cafe society that defined the spirit of the age”.

It marks a romantic reunion for Stewart and Eisenberg who appeared together in American Ultra.

Cafe Society will screen out of competition at this year’s event, which runs from 11 to 22 May, ahead of its release later this year.

Jodie Foster’s Money Monster starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney, and Steven Spielberg’s The BFG are already confirmed to screen at the festival.

The full official selection will be announced mid-April.

President Serzh Sargsyan received today Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze. President Sargsyan hailed the intensified high-level contacts and political dialogue between the two countries based on traditional good-neighborly relations and friendship between the two nations.

The parties agreed that despite being part of different integration processes, Armenia and Georgia have a huge potential to exchange experience and implement joint programs.

The Georgian Foreign Minister said, in turn, there are good perspectives for developing the bilateral economic cooperation parallel to the political relations.

Serzh Sargsyan and Mikheil Janelidze attached importance to the balanced policy of the two countries on sensitive issues and the effective Armenian-Georgian cooperation within the framework of international organizations.

During the meeting reference was made to regional security, the existing problems and challenges, the negotiations on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan held consultations on Armenian-Argentine relations, ongoing bilateral programs and achievements.

The meeting featured Armenian Ambassador to Argentina Alexan Harutyunyan, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, Chairman of the Armenia-Argentina Friendship Group, Vice-President of the National Assembly Edward Sharmazanov, Minister of Economy Artsvik Minasyan, Deputy Foreign Minister Robert Harutyunyan, other officials.

President Sargsyan noted that Armenia and Argentina have traditionally enjoyed friendly relations, and added that the cooperation further deepened after Armenia gained independence.

According to the President, the special relations between Armenian and Argentina are connected with the existence of a viable Armenian community in the country. He praised the role of Eduardo Eurnekian’s activity in the development of economic relations. “Althouargh we are not satisfied with the commodity turnover,  there is a great potential for boosting trade. Of course, it’s important that Argentina is the 5^th country in terms of the volume of foreign investments in Armenia, and the Argentine investments in the country have exceeded $400 mln,” President Sargsyan said.

President Sargsyan pointed out the activity of the “Armenia International Airports,” “Tierra de Armenia,” “Converse Bank,” and other companies as successful examples of Armenian-Argentine cooperation.

Ambassador Harutyunyan presented the spheres of promising and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. “I think the good relations with the newly-elected President of Argentina can play an important role in the further development of bilateral relations,” he said. The Ambassador informed Argentine President Mauricio Macri could visit Armenia in the near future.

Recently the Government of Canada announced the fulfillment of its 2015 election campaign promise to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees. It was an important milestone for the government.

The resettlement of the refugees is a herculean task which requires the cooperation of the public and private sectors to resettle the newcomers in a dignified manner. This is an ongoing process which will take some time to complete.

Of the 25,000 refugees, 8,792 were privately sponsored, 2,207 were sponsored in a blended program and 14,921 were government-assisted refugees. Of the 8,792 privately sponsored refugees arriving in Toronto, around 1,800 are Armenian. In contrast to the government sponsored refugees, the privately sponsored refugees do not receive financial assistance other than airline tickets for those who arrived between Nov. 4, 2015 and Feb. 29, 2016. Thus, the privately sponsored refugees are dependent on their sponsors, friends, faith-based groups, and resettlement organizations. It is worth mentioning that the refugees are arriving with a few suitcases and have lost everything. Thus, they have to build a new life in a new country from almost zero.

In the past five months the Levant Settlement Centre and its volunteers have been working 24/7 in helping resettle the Armenians, who have arrived from Syria. The needs of the newcomers are diverse and numerous.

Accordingly, the team has provided transportation to the refugees’ various appointments and meetings, found accommodation, secured guarantors to lease apartments, acquired and delivered furniture and other essential household items, assisted in finding jobs, counseled them on educational matters, attended to their medical needs, translated documents from Arabic and Armenian into English, co-organized orientation sessions and job guidance seminars, provided legal advice, interpreted government policies and provided them accurate information regarding their status vis-à-vis the immigration department, in addition to miscellaneous services. Our Centre also liaised with non-Armenian faith-based groups which have sponsored Armenians and gave them guidance on how to communicate and interact with the refugees they have aided.

The Centre was also very active with many Canadian media outlets and various Canadian agencies and settlement organizations by providing them with objective analysis and up-to-date information on the Syrian Crisis and the refugees. Furthermore, we have facilitated many media interviews for the refugees to tell their heart-wrenching stories, experiences, and their sentiments about the Canadian Government’s and people’s initiative to welcome them and provide them a safe haven.The above support was provided to over 450 Syrian-Armenian and non-Armenian newcomers. The Centre also matched refugees with prospective sponsors in Canada.

Levant Settlement Centre says, however, that the work is not done yet. “We have a long road ahead of us to provide, to care, and to look after our brothers and sisters. Our most urgent need is to find employment to the newly-arrived. The refugees are hardworking, highly educated, and proud individuals who do not want to be a burden on anyone. They just need some help at this initial stage. They are eager to become productive members of our society and to contribute to our country in a meaningful way. I am confident that our newcomers will be exemplary Canadians who will make us proud.”

Samvel Mkrtchyan will replace Ashot Kocharyan as Armenia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Lebanon.

A corresponding decree was signed by President Serzh Sargsyan today.

The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has cut its key refinancing rate to 8.50 percent from 8.75 percent.

Annual deflation in Armenia was at 0.4 percent in January, down from 0.1 percent in December, according to CBA data. Monthly inflation in January was 2.2 percent, up from 1.7 percent inflation in December.

The government forecasts annual inflation within a range of 2.5-5.5 percent in 2016, the same as last year’s target.

Turkish jet fighters entered Greek airspace several times on Monday, as NATO was preparing to deploy ships to the Aegean Sea to tackle migrant smugglers, according to

Specifically, six Turkish fighter jets and a CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft entered successively in the Athens FIR on Monday without submitting a flight plan, violating the Greek airspace 22 times in different regions of the Aegean.

The Athens FIR also recorded two more violations of air traffic rules. Nineteen out of 22 violations were committed by the CN-235 which passed between islands of the eastern and central Aegean.

According to Hellenic Air Force sources, the aforementioned aircraft entered Athens’ FIR at 14:09 local time between Lemnos and Lesbos and exited at 16:21 east of Rhodes.

The Turkish warplanes were recognized in all cases and were intercepted by Greek fighter jets as per international regulations. In two cases the interception process developed into a dogfight. Two of the Turkish aircraft were armed.

Turkey did not allow the aircraft carrying Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Iran to land in Rhodes for refueling claiming that the island is in a demilitarized zone.

It was revealed on Monday that the Greek prime minister’s trip to Iran on February 6 was not as smooth as it should be. The flight plan of the plane that was carrying Tsipras and Greek cabinet members included a landing on the island of Rhodes to refuel.

However, Turkish authorities prevented the landing on the grounds that the plane is an Embraer military aircraft with Greek Air Force pilots and crew. Since Turkey considers Rhodes and the other Dodecanese islands a demilitarized area, Turkish authorities suggested that Greece should submit a new flight plan and refuel in Ankara, Alexandroupolis or any other area. If the Greek mission would agree to refuel in Turkey, then it would be given authority to fly over Turkish air space.

Greek diplomats, then, advised the prime minister to avoid a new flight plan which would include Turkey, because that would mean Greece recognizes Rhodes as a demilitarized zone.

After that, the prime minister’s aircraft changed flight plan and flew over Egypt, Cyprus, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in order to reach Iran, while it stopped for refueling in Egypt.

 

Eight suspects have been captured over the murder of an Armenian-origin Turkish homeowner, an assault on his wife and the burglary of their shared home on Feb. 6, the reports.

A special team formed by several officers from the homicide bureau of the Istanbul Police Department Public Order Unit captured three of the suspects in the Black Seaprovince of Trabzon late Feb. 9 while five other suspects, who were reported to have helped commit the burglary, were captured in Istanbul on the same day.

The move came days after Hagop Yakup Demirci, an 85-year-old Armenian man living in Istanbul’s Şişli district with his wife, Seta Ayda Demirci, 79, was found dead after the three burglars left the old Armenian couple hogtied inside their apartment, from which the burglars stole 100,000 Turkish Liras on Feb. 6. The body of Demirci was retrieved from the apartment located in Şişli’s Harbiye neighborhood with a ladder from the fire department.

The three burglars who were captured in Trabzon were preparing to travel to Batumi, a commercial hub in Georgia, with fake identity cards, police sources said, adding that the trio had former criminal records.

On Feb. 6, a cleaner came to the apartment of the couple at around 2 p.m. but could receive no response, prompting the person to inform the couple’s family and the police.

The couple was taken out of their apartment on the third floor of a building in a joint effort by police officers and firefighters. Hagop Yakup Demirci was pronounced dead while his wife was found severely wounded with her face bruised.

A special team formed by several officers from the homicide bureau of the Istanbul Police Department Public Order Unit captured three of the suspects, one of whom has been a servant for the Armenian couple, in the Black Sea province of Trabzon late Feb. 9 while five other suspects, who were reported to have helped commit the burglary, were captured in Istanbul on the same day. All eight of the suspects, five women and three men, were revealed to be Armenians upon a police investigation.

Today, the European Union has published a comprehensive report on the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) for the period 2014-2015. The report is a prime example of how the European Union strengthens trade relations with partner countries, such as Armenia while insisting on sustainable development and governance reforms.

The EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) is designed to help partner countries develop their economies through benefitting from international trade. It grants reduced or zero tariffs on imports to the EU, making access to EU markets easier. Thus the GSP helps generate new business opportunities and trade revenues, which contribute to boosting economic growth, creating new employment opportunities and reducing poverty in beneficiary countries.

In particular, the GSP+ Special Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance provides additional support (full tariff removals) to countries which ratify and effectively implement 27 core international conventions on human rights, labour rights, good governance and environmental protection. Since the GSP reform applied as from 1 January 2014, the EU undertakes enhanced monitoring of the GSP+ beneficiaries’ compliance with these obligations with a view to support their efforts to improve the implementation of the conventions. Armenia benefits from the reformed GSP+ as from the start of its application.

The present first bi-annual report on the reformed GSP+ functioning examines how Armenia implemented its binding commitments made when entering the GSP+, in particular ratification and effective implementation of the relevant international conventions, reporting to the international monitoring bodies and cooperation with the EU side in its monitoring process. The report concludes that during the first GSP+ monitoring cycle, Armenia demonstrated genuine efforts to comply with its committments. At the same time, Armenia has to continue and in some cases step up its work to further improve its implementation of the conventions – not least striving to ensure that Armenian citizens experience human rights protection improvements in their everyday life – in order to keep the GSP+ benefits.

In particular, in 2014-2015, Armenia made an overall effort to address the shortcomings identified in its implementation of the conventions, primarily related to missing or inadequate legislation and awareness rising. At the same time, Armenia needs to further step up its efforts to effectively address several persisting human rights problems, in particular regarding the independence and integrity of the judiciary and of the political system as a whole, the insufficient legislative and enforcement framework against torture and ill treatment, widespread corruption, discrimination against minorities, discrimination and violence against women and child poverty. Regarding labour rights, Armenia’s legislation and practice on the official labour market are broadly in line with the ILO fundamental conventions. However, both should be improved on a number of points, in particular the freedom of association for employers and workers, more regular and effective labour inspection and prevention of discrimination at workplace. Armenia should also make more efforts to curtail unregulated employment. Armenia continued to make efforts to protect the environment through implementation of the legal framework and introduction of new specific legislation in several sectors (e.g. air, water, nature protection). Overall, Armenia takes good advantage of the EU substantial assistance on environmental protection and tackling of climate change and intends to continue doing so also to support its future priorities and objectives in these areas.

Based on the report´s findings, priority actions will be identified at the beginning of the next two-year monitoring cycle in 2016. While these may reflect deep-rooted and long-term issues, clear evidence of concrete progress to tackle these shortcomings will be expected over the next monitoring period. A number of projects can be launched to build Armenia’s capacity in meeting its GSP+ obligations.

Close cooperation with a wide range of partners is crucial to the success of the GSP+,. Apart from the Armenian authorities, the EU works with local and international human and labour rights experts and engages in an active dialogue with the civil society organizations in Armenia. In many cases, the civil society has welcomed the GSP+ arrangement as an incentive for change.

The next report on Armenia’s compliance with its GSP+ commitments will be published by November 2017.

The conventions covered by the GSP+ are grouped in the following four themes:

1) seven conventions on human rights protection (against torture, anti-discrimination, rights of women, children, and minorities, civil and political rights including freedom of expression and association, right to a fair trial and judicial independence);

2) eight International Labour Organisation’s conventions on labour rights (against forced labour and child labour, workers’ rights to collectively organise and bargain, against discrimination at work and equal pay for men and women);

3) eight conventions on environmental protection and climate change (to monitor hazardous waste and harmful pollutants, to safeguard biodiversity and endangered species and to tackle climate change); and

4) four conventions on good governance (to support countries to strengthen their governance and institutions – the UN convention against Corruption, as well as three UN conventions seeking to control illegal drugs).

GSP+ has a significant trade and economic importance for Armenia. In 2014, approximately 60 million EUR (equivalent of 32 billion AMD) worth export, which constituted 26% of the total Armenian export to the EU (228 million EUR or 120 billion AMD), benefitted from the GSP+ preferences and so were exported with zero tariffs. The picture further improved in the first half of 2015 when 58 million EUR (31 billion AMD) worth Armenian export to the EU benefitted from the GSP+ arrangement. This represents already 41 % of the total Armenian export to the EU (144 million EUR or 76 billion AMD).

Moreover, a large majority of the Armenian businesses exporting to the EU that can make use of the GSP+ actually used that opportunity and were granted duty free market access in 2014-2015. Armenia uses the GSP+ in particular in these export sectors: clothing, aluminium, crayfish, juices, jams and other processed food, nuts and other seeds.